"Well, then," said Stephen st.u.r.dily, "the lady who came riding down the street and took away my heart with her is called Osra, and her father is named Henry."
A moment or two pa.s.sed before they understood what the smith had said.
Then the old King fell into a fit of laughter, half choked by coughing; Prince Rudolf clapped his hands in merry mockery, and a deep flush spread over the face of the Princess; while the Countess, her companion, and the younger Prince seemed too astonished to do anything but stare.
As for Stephen, having said what he had to say, he held his peace--a thing in him which many men, and women also, would do well to imitate; and, if they cannot, let them pray for the grace that is needful. Heaven is omnipotent.
The old King, having recovered from his fit of laughing, looked round on the smith with infinite amus.e.m.e.nt, and, turning to his daughter, he said: "Come, Osra, you have heard the declaration. It remains only for you to satisfy our good friend"s conscience by refusing him three times.
For then he will be free to do our pleasure and make the Countess Hilda happy."
The heart of women is, as it would seem, a strange thing; for the Princess Osra, hearing what the smith had said and learning that he had fallen pa.s.sionately in love with her on the mere sight of her beauty, suddenly felt a tenderness for him and a greater admiration than she had entertained before; and although she harboured no absurd idea of listening to his madness, or of doing anything in the world but laugh at it as it deserved, yet there came on her a strange dislike of the project that she had herself, in sport, suggested: namely, that the smith should be married immediately to the Countess Hilda by the Lord Bishop of Modenstein. The fellow, this smith, had an eye for true beauty, it seemed. It would be hard to tie him down to this dusky, black-maned girl; for so the Princess described the lady whom her brother loved, she herself being, like most of the Elphbergs, rather red than black in color. Accordingly, when the King spoke to her, she said fretfully:
"Am I to be put to refuse the hand of such a fellow as this? Why, to refuse him is a stain on my dignity!" And she looked most haughty.
"Yet you must grant him so much because of his oath," said the King.
"Well, then, I refuse him," said she tartly, and she turned her eyes away from him.
"That is once," said Stephen the smith calmly, and he fixed his eyes on the Princess"s face. She felt his gaze, her eyes were drawn back to his, and she exclaimed angrily:
"Yes, I refuse him," and again she looked away. But he looked still more intently at her, waiting for the third refusal.
"It is as easy to say no three times as twice," said the King.
"For a man, sire," murmured Prince Rudolf; for he was very learned in the perilous knowledge of a woman"s whims, and, maybe, read something of what was pa.s.sing in his sister"s heart. Certainly he looked at her and laughed, and said to the King:
"Sire, I think this smith is a clever man, for what he really desires is to wed the Countess, and to do it without disobliging my brother.
Therefore he professes this ridiculous pa.s.sion, knowing well that Osra will refuse him, and that he will enjoy the great good fortune of marrying the Countess against his will. Thus he will obey you and be free from my brother"s anger. In truth, you"re a crafty fellow, Master Stephen!"
"There is no craft, sir," said Stephen. "I have told nothing but the truth."
But the King swore a loud oath, crying: "Aye, that there is! Rudolf has. .h.i.t the mark. Yet I do not grudge him his good luck. Refuse him, Osra, and make him happy."
But the dark flush came anew on the Princess"s face, for now she did not know whether the smith really loved her or whether he had been making a jest of her in order to save himself in the eyes of her brother Henry, and it became very intolerable to her to suppose that the smith desired the Countess, and had lied in what he said about herself, making a tool of her. Again, it was hardly more tolerable to give him to the Countess, in case he truly loved herself; so that her mind was very greatly disturbed, and she was devoured with eagerness to know the reality of the smith"s feelings towards her; for, although he was only a smith, yet he was a wonderfully handsome man--in truth, it was curious that she had not paid attention to his looks before. Thus she was reluctant to refuse him a third time, when the Bishop of Modenstein stood there, waiting only for her word to marry him to the Countess; and she rose suddenly from her seat and walked towards the door of the room, and, when she had almost reached the door, she turned her head over her shoulder and cast one smile at Stephen the smith. As she glanced, the blush again mounted to her face, making her so lovely that her father wondered, and she said in arch softness: "I"ll refuse him the third time some other day; two denials are enough for one day," and with that she pa.s.sed through the door and vanished from their sight.
The King and Rudolf, who had seen the glance that she cast at Stephen, fell to laughing again, swearing to one another that a woman was a woman all the world over, whereat the lips of the Bishop twitched.
"But the marriage can"t go on," cried Rudolf at last.
"Let it rest for to-day," said the King, whose anger was past. "Let it rest. The Countess shall be guarded; and, since this young fool" (and he pointed to his son Henry) "will not wander while she is caged, let him go where he will. Then as soon as Osra has refused the smith a third time, we will send for the Bishop."
"And what am I to do, sire?" asked Stephen the smith.
"Why, my son-in-law that would be," chuckled the King, "you may go back to where you came from till I send for you again."
So Stephen, having thanked the King, went back home, and, sitting down to the chasing of a cup, became very thoughtful; for it seemed to him that the Countess had been hardly treated, and that the Prince deserved happiness, and that the Princess was yet more lovely than his eyes had found her before.
Thus, in his work and his meditations, the afternoon wore away fast. So goes time when hand and head are busy.
The Princess Osra walked restlessly up and down the length of her bed-chamber. Dinner was done and it was eight o"clock, and, the season being late October, it had grown dark. She had come thither to be alone; yet, now that she was alone, she could not rest. He was an absurd fellow--that smith! Yes, she thought him fully as handsome as her brother Rudolf. But what did Henry find to love in the black-brown Hilda? She could not understand a man caring for such a colour; a blackamoor would serve as well! Ah, what had that silly smith meant? It must have been a trick, as Rudolf said. Yet when he spoke first of her riding down the street, there was a look in his eyes that a man can hardly put there of his own will. Did the silly fellow then really----?
Nay, that was absurd; she prayed that it might not be true, for she would not have the poor fool unhappy. Nay, he was no fool. It was a trick, then! How dared the insolent knave use her for his tricks? Was there no other maiden in Strelsau whose name would have served? Must he lay his tongue to the name of a daughter of the Elphbergs? The fellow deserved flogging, if it were a trick. Ah, was it a trick? Or was it the truth? Oh, in heaven"s name, which was it? And the Princess tore the delicate silk of her ivory fan to shreds, and flung the naked sticks with a clatter on the floor.
"I can"t rest till I know," she cried, as she came to a stand before a long mirror let into the panel of the wall, and saw herself at full length in it. As she looked a smile came, parting her lips, and she threw her head back as she said: "I will go and ask the smith what he meant." And she smiled again at her own face in triumphant daring; for when she looked, she thought, "I know what he meant! Yet I will hear from himself what he meant."
Stephen the smith sat alone in his house; his apprentices were gone, and he himself neither worked nor supped, but sat still and idle by his hearth. The street was silent also, for it rained and n.o.body was about.
Then suddenly came a light timid rap at the door; so light was it that the smith doubted if he had really heard, but it came again and he rose leisurely and opened the door. Even as he did so a slight tall figure slipped by him, an arm pulled him back, the door was pushed close again, and he was alone inside the house with a lady wrapped in a long riding-cloak, and so veiled that nothing of her face could be seen.
"Welcome, madame," said Stephen the smith; and he drew a chair forward and bowed to his visitor. He was not wearing his ap.r.o.n now, but was dressed in a well-cut suit of brown cloth and had put on a pair of silk stockings. He might have been expecting visitors, so carefully had he arrayed himself.
"Do you know who I am?" asked the veiled lady.
"Since I was a baby, madame," answered the smith, "I have known the sun when I saw it, even though clouds dimmed its face."
A corner of the veil was drawn down, and one eye gleamed in frightened mirth.
"n.o.body knows I have come," said Osra. "And you do not know why I have come."
"Is it to answer me for the third time?" asked he, drawing a step nearer, yet observing great deference in his manner.
"It is not to answer at all, but to ask. But I am very silly to have come. What is it to me what you meant?"
"I cannot conceive that it could be anything, madame," said Stephen, smiling.
"Yet some think her beautiful--my brother Henry, for example."
"We must respect the opinions of Princes," observed the smith.
"Must we share them?" she asked, drawing the veil yet a little aside.
"We can share nothing--we humble folk--with Princes or Princesses, madame."
"Yet we can make free with their names, though humbler ones would serve as well."
"No other would have served at all, madame."
"Then you meant it?" she cried in sudden half-serious eagerness.
"Nay, but what, madame?"
"I don"t care whether you meant it or not."
"Alas! I know it so well, that I marvel you have come to tell me."
The Princess rose and began to walk up and down as she had in her own chamber. Stephen stood regarding her as though G.o.d had made his eyes for that one purpose.
"The thing is nothing," she declared petulantly, "but I have a fancy to ask it. Stephen, was it a trick, or--or was it really so? Come, answer me! I can"t spend much time on it."
"It is not worth a thought to you. If you say no a third time, all will be well."